Rotary exchange students travel the USA

Thursday

Sep 28, 2017 at 4:22 PMSep 28, 2017 at 4:22 PM

Messenger Post Media

Victor-Farmington Rotary Club’s recent dinner meeting involved a pictorial slide program by Rotarian Kim Yourch on her experience as a counselor on a cross-country coach trip involving 83 Rotary exchange students from around the world.

The students were completing their year as Rotary exchange students. They came from across the U.S. and Canada.

Yourch, of Farmington, is the Youth Exchange officer for Victor-Farmington Rotary. The tour involved two coaches that accommodated the students and six Rotary counselors.

After departing from Rochester, the first stop on the tour was Washington, D.C. The students toured the city and visited historic locations and monuments. From Washington, the tour started an extensive travel route that included visits to Memphis, Tennessee; New Orleans; San Antonio; Houston; New Mexico; California; the Grand Canyon; Las Vegas; Utah; San Francisco; Sacramento, California; Grand Teton National Park; Yellowstone National Park; Mount Rushmore; the South Dakota Badlands; Chicago; and Niagara Falls.

Yourch shared highlights of the trip, including visits to the French Quarter in New Orleans and the Space Center in Houston; a day on the beach at Newport Beach, California; a visit to Walt Disney World; and a visit to the famous Wall Drug Store in South Dakota. Other memorable stops included the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, and Navy Pier in Chicago.

The students, who ranged in age from 16 to 19, had certain rules they were required to follow for their own safety and protection. When not with a counselor, they always had to travel in groups of a minimum of four. There were curfew hours. In retrospect, Yourch said that while the experience took her away from her home and job for a month, she was glad she had the opportunity to have served as a counselor.

The meeting also involved the induction of a new member to the club — Pam Rosbrook-Schlerf, of Farmington. Rosbrook-Schlerf was inducted by Past District Gov. Norma Madayag Reilly, of Newark Rotary Club, and Victor-Farmington Rotary President Bonnie Cottone. Rosbrook-Schlerf is a former Rotary Youth Exchange student, and her daughter, Carli Vanmaaren, recently returned from a year in Denmark as a Rotary exchange student.

Congratulating Rosbrook-Schlerf on her induction was Claudia, the club’s current exchange student from Italy. Claudia will live with Rosbrook-Schlerf and her family later in the school year.

In other club activity, club members John Rugg and Galen Powers delivered several cases of gently used books to Wilson Park Commencement Center in Rochester as part of the club’s cooperative program with Victor Farmington Library to provide books to charitable institutions serving low-income people.

A delegation of club members attended the recent dedication of Farmington Veterans Memorial at Farmington Town Park. The club previously made a financial contribution to the memorial’s construction.

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